Friday, May 29, 2009

Eureka, Diomede and Eureka

Just a couple of cards to show today and they are all from the North. First is a card from Eureka, Nunavut, Canada. Eureka is the second most northerly permanently inhabited settlement on Earth. Located on Ellesmere Island it serves as a research base and weather station. It is 1100 km from the north pole and was founded in 1947. Eureka sees the midnight sun between April 10 and August 29, with No sunlight at all between mid-October and late February. Eureka has the lowest average annual temperature and least precipitation of any weather station in Canada. Winters are frigid but summers are slightly warmer than at other places in the Canadian Arctic. However, the temperature has never exceeded 20.7 degrees C. The postcard shows the flora and fauna of Arctic life. It was sent by Dean , the Eureka Postmaster. Dean used a 2007 Permanent stamp. The very nice postmark commemorates Eureka as Canada's Most Northern post Office and also commemorates Eureka Weather Station. A very nice addition to my postcard collection.

The next card is from Diomede, Alaska, U.S.A. The Diomede Islands consist of the U.S. island of Little Diomede and the Russian island of Big Diomede. They are located in the middle of the Bering Strait. The islands are separated by an international border and The International Dateline. At their closest distance the two islands are only 4 km apart. The village of Diomede , from where this postcard was mailed, is located on the west side of Little Diomede. It's 2007 population was 147 people. Mail to the island is delivered by helicopter and then only weekly. The postal contract is the only one that uses helicopters for delivering mail. The card is from The Geophysical Institute of The University of Alaska. It shows an auroral corona as seen from Fairbanks, Alaska. The card was sent by Willis F , a teacher at Diomede School. Willis wrote that at the time of sending the card, May 9th, Little Diomede was still connected to Russian Big Diomede by slushy ice. The stamp that Willis used is a 2007 first Class Forever stamp featuring the Liberty Bell.

The final card is another card from the Postmaster at Eureka. It shows our great flag, The Maple Leaf. The 2 stamps are from the 2009 issue , for Preserving the Poles and were issued on April 09. The stamps feature an Arctic Tern and a Polar Bear. This issue is part of an international stamp campaign to raise awareness about global warming under the theme '' Preserve the Polar Regions and Glaciers''.Two quite appropriate stamps coming on a card from Eureka, in the high Arctic.

A nice and very interesting update this time.
Take care and leave a comment if you wish.

1 comment:

dyanna said...

I like your blog.I'm waiting for your new posts.